Tranquil Fire
by Lady Asuna
Summary: Katara is abducted by Admiral Zhao, and is unexpectedly rescued by The Blue Spirit, only to fall into the hands of another enemy, Prince Zuko. But thats not the last she sees of The Blue Spirit...


Greetings! And welcome to my first fanfic, **_Tranquil Fire_**! I would like to introduce myself as Lady Asuna! This is my very first story, and I hope that you have as much fun reading it as I have fun writing it.

Summary: Katara is abducted by Admiral Zhao, set on using her as bait, is rescued by The Blue Spirit. But only to fall back into the hands of another Fire Nation enemy, Prince Zuko. Zutara! Rated mature for later chapters.

**_Tranquil Fire_**

Chapter one: _In the Forest of the Night_

It was dusk when they made camp. Aang collected the fire wood with Momo, Sokka starting the fire and Katara pitching the tent.

"This is hopeless! This fire will never start!" Sokka yelled throwing down the objects for the fire after his sixth attempt. It was obvious that the day's events were getting to him. Continuously dodging the Fire Nation day after day, sometimes even at night. Getting Aang to the North Pole seemed and almost impossible task.

"Relax, Sokka, you're just tired, everyone is." Katara tried to console her brother while concentrating on hammering the spike into the ground.

Katara let out a hiss when she missed her target, ending up hitting her finger instead. Hoping to relive the pain, she sucked on her injured finger.

She hated it.

She hated running for her life. The Fire Nation just wouldn't stop, no matter what. Her muscles ached, her head hurt, Katara was hungry and tired and deeply homesick. She just wanted to crawl into her sleeping bag and not wakes up for a very long time. Katara wanted all this to stop. But she couldn't because…

Aang was her friend

It was her promise. She promised to get Aang to the North Pole so he and she could learn waterbending together. She couldn't let a headache and a few sore muscles stop them. It was their mission and nothing could stop them.

"Katara," Sokka's voice interrupted her train of thought. "You okay?" a worried look had crossed his face.

"Yeah," Katara looked down toward the now raging fire." It's just…hard..."

"I know" Sokka replied.

It was hard on everyone, especially Aang. It somewhat puzzled Katara that out of all this chaos and war, he can still manage to smile and laugh so freely, even when so many people die everyday. He had the Fire Nation constantly on his trail and the pressure to learn water, earth and fire. Especially fire, who would be willing enough to teach firebending to the Avatar?

_Fire…_

…the polar opposite of her element. Water stood for healing and life.

But fire... It was dangerous, destructive…_a curse_. Each element could destroy each other. They were natural enemies. Even now the fire seemed to be leaning away from her; _water incarnate._

Suddenly the fire unnaturally rose to a threading height. It roared with the power of a great strength.

"What-?" Katara started. "Fire benders!" Sokka exclaimed grabbing for his boomerang and unsheathing it." But what about Aang!"

A fire blast erupted from the trees surrounding their camp. The tent caught fire and burned easily. As fast as she could, Katara grabbed her canteen gourd and willed the water to douse the fire. Fire soldiers stepped into the clearing. "Where's the avatar?"

"Do you think we would stoop so low to tell you?" Sokka demanded.

"No..." Admiral Zhao stepped into the clearing in front of the Fire Nation Soldiers." But you're going to tell us anyway"

As if that it was a signal the Fire Nation soldiers stepped forward and shot a powerful blast of fire towards the siblings. Katara managed to summon her water shield and protect herself from the fire. However for Sokka rolled a ground yelling, trying to kill the fire that licked at his butt. Katara rolled her eyes as she doused the fire harming her brother.

"Katara, run!"

"But Aang-!" Katara didn't know what to do. She looked over at her brother who just dodged a spear. Appa wasn't here, so Katara did the only thing she could think of within all that chaos.

She ran

When she turned and entered the damp, cold forests he heard Zhao yell" Don't let her escape! After her!" the air around her grew warmer as the soldiers shot more fire blast into he night.

She had to find Aang; he had to get them out of here.

She heard the footsteps of the soldiers who were chasing after her. A thought occurred to her. If she were to find Aang, so would the Fire Nation. Katara changed her course of action, she wasn't sure were she was going, she just hoped it was away from Aang.

It had to of been about a mile before Katara's legs gave out. She collapsed to the ground, breathless. She couldn't go on, no matter how much she urged herself to get back up.

_I have to get up! If I don't…_

Katara didn't really want to think about that right now. Katara managed to crawl underneath a big tree; it was the best cover to have at the moment. The soldiers stalked around the area she lost them in. Didn't those Fire Nation soldiers ever give up? She would at least expect them to be a little more tired than they were now, considering the armor they wore anyway.

Katara did her best to limit her breathing to normal as the soldiers neared her.

She uncorked her canteen once again and readied her hand. A soldier hovered right over her spot, just a few feet away. Ashe took a deep breath and unleashed her best water whip, the soldiers fell back mostly in surprise.

"Wench" a soldier hissed as he grabbed her by her hair and lifted her to her knees. Admiral Zhao stood only feet away from her, his dark gold eyes studied her hard. His gaze…the look he gave her made a chill run up her spine.

"Well" His mouth turned up into a sickening smile." What a nice little fly I caught into my trap."

**Author's notes**

I was somewhat disappointed with this chapter. I was really hoping to create a humor scene with Sokka (he is one of my favorite characters) but I just focusing on finishing the chapter.

Next chapter will be longer (I hope) and a lot better. I'm sorry to say Zuko will not appear until the third chapter, according to my outline, anyway.

I accept flames, if I want to be the best writer I can be then please, flame me if you want(just try not to be TO mean) and I also except reviews as well (who doesn't)

Lady Asuna

September 22, 2006


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